Ali Sports sign 10 year agreement with Changzhou

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On January 11th, Ali Sports and the Changzhou Municipal Sports Administration announced a ten-year strategic partnership. This will entail developing comprehensive cooperation in areas like stadium management, event operation, eSports business, sports training and sports big data, so focusing on transforming Changzhou into an excellent example of a dynamic sport city.

The Changzhou Sports Industry Group and Ali Sports will cooperate on the operation of the WESG (World Electronic Sports Games). In the next 3 years, they will jointly invest in and operate the events at the WESG Changzhou site, as well as plan and build eSports stadiums.

WESG is an international comprehensive eSports competition created by Ali Sports. Started in May 2016, over 60,000 players from 125 countries and regions have signed up for the qualifying competitions. The total prize money of the first WESG is at US$ 5.5 million, and the overall input is about RMB 0.1 billion. After 7 months of continental competitions, the World Finals will be held from January 12th – 15th 2017 in Changzhou, with 336 participants.

Through this joint cooperation, 5 offline international WESG related events will be held at the Changzhou Olympic Center, including the World Finals, China Finals, Asia Pacific Finals, and so on.

‍‍Ali Sports is committed to developing a new model of eSports venues, and turning all the Internet cafes in China, big and small, into unified multi-functional eSports venues. So far there have been over 1,000 registered Internet cafes. It will also carry out the same cooperation in Changzhou.‍‍

In October 2016, the Alibaba Group and Jiangsu Province, Changzhou’s home province, became comprehensive strategic partners. This partnership between Ali Sports and Changzhou is the first step of Alibaba and Jiangsu’s cooperation in the sports industry.  

Proofread by Sean O Diobhilin

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